Jeanie London - Her Last Protector

Mirie sighed. “Let’s discuss damage control for my newest half sibling, shall we?”

Georghe briefed her on Vadim, an American attorney who claimed to have been born out of wedlock during the first years of her parents’ marriage.

“A first child,” she said. “We haven’t had one of those before. And an American. That’s new, too.”

No one replied. Dealing with these claims was always awkward. Her father couldn’t defend himself against the charges and no one wanted to offend Mirie by impugning his moral conduct.

She kept the lead. “Do we know when Vadim was born?”

Georghe shuffled through some paperwork. “I’ve got his entry papers. June 29, 1980.”

Mirie mentally calculated. “My mother would have been pregnant with Alexi.”

No response.

“Do we know yet if my father even visited America during―” more calculations “―October of ’79 or thereabouts?”

Georghe didn’t bother looking back at his papers. “His Majesty visited Washington, D.C., for several weeks the year the honorary consulate opened. The time frame works.”

“And the alleged mother. She was in our employ?”

“That checks, too. An envoy named Ileana Vadim. A Ninselan citizen. She put in her notice in late 1981, and I couldn’t find any documentation that she ever returned to Ninsele. I’ve got my staff trying to track her down now.”

She nodded. “So Luca Vadim has done his homework.”

Silence. Mirie didn’t really need a reply. Everyone around the table was likely thinking the same thing.

Jus sanguinis. Salic law.

She may be in charge right now. She may eventually give birth to a son who could grow up to be king, but she would never be queen. Primogeniture decreed that only males could rule.

She couldn’t change that law even if she had been so inclined. Until she could negotiate consensus on the government structure, such a move would be seen as self-serving and could potentially deepen the rift between the opposing factions that had only tentatively been bridged since the civil war.

“Vadim is an attorney,” she said. “His most likely move will be to take his claim to court and sue for the right to the throne as the only living male heir.”

“He’d have to establish paternity,” Georghe said.

“He won’t,” Mirie said firmly. “Not through legal means, anyway. But if he continues to use the media, he will cast doubt on my right to negotiate with the European Commission. Enough doubt, and he may give the representatives one more reason to delay the talks.”

The very last thing they needed was to make the process of hosting representatives from the European Commission more complex. Like the Western Balkans that endured years of civil war, Ninsele had to be stabilized before it could formally become an acceding country with the commission’s support.

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